The Daily Telegraph reports Diamond said Tucker told him that “it did not always need to be the case that we [Barclays] appeared as high as we have recently”.
Barclays claims this was interpreted by Jerry del Missier, then a senior manager at Barclays Capital, as an instruction to lower the bank’s Libor submissions.
The claims emerged after Diamond submitted information to the Treasury Select Committee before his evidence session this afternoon.
Barclays said: “Bob Diamond did not believe he received an instruction from Paul Tucker or that he gave an instruction to Jerry del Missier. However Jerry del Missier concluded that an instruction had been passed down from the Bank of England not to keep LIBORs so high and he therefore passed down a direction to that effect to the submitters.”
Marcus Agius, chairman of Barclays, also blamed del Missier.
Agius, who resigned on Monday, said: "Jerry was the most senior officer who gave instructions to lower Libor rates.”
